Semi-conductor components, for instance corresponding integrated (analog and/or digital) computer circuits, semi-conductor memory components, for instance functional memory components (PLAs, PALs, etc.) and table memory components (e.g. ROMs or RAMs, in particular SRAMs and DRAMs) are subjected to extensive testing during the manufacturing process.
For the simultaneous, combined manufacture of numerous (generally identical) semi-conductor components, a so-called wafer (i.e. a thin disk of monocrystalline silicon) is used.
The wafer is appropriately treated (for instance subjected in succession to numerous coating, exposure, etching, diffusion and implantation process steps, etc.), and then for instance sliced up (or scored and snapped off), so that the individual components become available.
After the wafer has been sliced up (and/or scored and snapped off) the—individually available components—are each individually loaded into special housings or packages (for instance, so-called TSOP or FBGA housings etc.) and then—by means of appropriate trays—transported to a corresponding further station, especially a test station (and/or in succession to several other test stations).
The above test station may for instance be a so-called “burn-in” testing station (at which, by creating extreme conditions (for instance increased temperatures) artificial aging of the components is caused) in particular a “burn-in” test station, at which the so-called burn-in test procedure is performed, i.e. a test done under extreme conditions (for instance increased temperature, for instance above 80° C. or 100° C., increased operational voltage, etc.).
At the (test) station each individual component—present in the above-mentioned housings—is loaded into a corresponding adapter and/or socket—connected to a corresponding test apparatus—and then the component in each housing is tested.
Loading the (burn-in) adapter and/or socket with a component to be tested can be done with the help of one or several appropriate loading apparatuses (“loaders”).
For doing this, a grabber device, for instance a loader head, provided at an appropriate loading apparatus (loader), can be provided with a partial vacuum, with the help of which a component can be removed from a tray and then—by means of an appropriate (for instance a swiveling or shifting) motion of the grabber device and/or the “loader head”—positioned above a so-called precision alignment device.
Then the component positioned above the precision alignment device can be dropped by the loader of the grabber device—by reducing the vacuum—into one of the recesses provided with appropriate tapered guiding planes on the precision alignment device.
By means of the tapered guiding planes it can be achieved that the component and/or component housing is (pre- or coarsely) aligned by being dropped into the corresponding precision alignment recess.
Next the component can again be removed by the above loading apparatus (and/or by any additional loading apparatus) from the recess provided in the precision alignment device (for instance by creating a partial vacuum at the grabber device and/or the loader head provided at the above or at any additional loading apparatus).
Then the component can be positioned above a corresponding (burn-in) adapter and/or socket by means of an appropriate (for instance a swiveling or shifting) motion of the grabber device and/or the loader head.
Conventional (burn-in) adapters and/or sockets may for instance consist of a base element and a cover (“lid”), which is adjustable in a vertical direction in relation to the base element by means of corresponding spring sections attached to the base element.
By appropriate downward pressure on the adapter and/or socket cover, the adapter and/or socket can be “opened”, whereafter the component suspended above the adapter and/or socket by the above loader the grabber device can be dropped into the adapter and/or socket by reducing the vacuum.
Appropriate tapered guiding planes can be provided inside the adapter and/or socket, for the purpose of—exactly—aligning the component and/or the component housing when it falls into the adapter.
When the adapter and/or the socket cover is then released again, it is forced upwards by the above-mentioned spring sections, whereby it is achieved that connections provided on the corresponding component (and/or component housing) make contact with connections provided on the corresponding adapter and/or socket, i.e. until the adapter and/or socket is “closed” so that the above test procedure can then be performed on the component.
In the manufacture/testing of semi-conductor components the above-mentioned (burn-in) adapters and/or sockets are usually required in relatively large numbers.
Conventional (burn-in) adapters and/or sockets are relatively expensive, due to the costly precision engineering of basic socket components and covers—which is needed to avoid faulty contacts between component (and/or component housings) and adapters and/or socket connections.